God lives.

Hello everybody!

Last Monday we had Family Home Evening with one of the member families in our branch. The dad gave us an "almost" referral, he has a friend he wants us to go visit, but he couldn't remember the address :) 

On Tuesday we were trying to visit a couple less active members in one of the nearby towns. However, we got very, very lost. On the map it looked like the streets connected, but in real life that was not so much the case. So we were about to turn around and go back to the main area of town when I had the feeling we should ring the door bells of the houses in that neighborhood. So that's what we did. We found an American! His name is J, he was telling us how he used to go to church in the US but since moving to Germany hasn't really found a church to go to. We gave him a Book of Mormon and we are going to go by again on Wednesday! That evening we had an appointment with A, who is from Afghanistan. The list of countries from which my investigators come from is just getting longer! It now includes Afghanistan, Nepal, China, Poland, Italy, Columbia, the U.S. and Nigeria, and that's not all! Oh, I have also taught a few people that are actually German :)

We did an Autausch (Exchange) this week! I went to go work in Pforzheim with Sister Garrett! It was a lot of fun. It is always a treat to go to another city and just do missionary work without worrying about all the other stuff. It was almost like a little vacation. We found three people that were interested. They all lived at house number 10, just on different streets :)

Yesterday was Stake Conference. It was held in the stake center in Stuttgart. It basically looks like any of the churches I grew up with back in the states, which is super weird. The talks were great. The funny thing is we will be going to Stuttgart today for P-Day and then again tomorrow for Zone Conference! Three days in a row! 

This transfer is one week shorter than normal, which means we will be getting our transfer calls on March 15 and transfers will then take place the following week. Crazy! Sister Pingree, my trainer, goes home this transfer! Our mission is getting 14 new sisters and only 2 are going home (or so I've heard), so the likelihood is high that I will be training sometime in the very near future.

I have been thinking lately about "knowing" versus "believing." We were doing a role play and one of the Elders said "I know God is there. It's just true. Just like the table is there, God is there." There are some things that I have to rely on my faith for, some things that I just have to believe for now because I can't see them from my earthly perspective. But there are other things that I just KNOW. I can't really explain it, but I could never deny the fact that God is there.

Ich weiß, dass Gott da ist und das er uns liebt. Davon bin ich überzeugt. Egal was kommt, ich weiß es.

(I know that God is there and that he loves us. This I know for sure. Whatever happens, I will still know it.) 

Tschüss! Bis später! (Bye-Bye, Later)

--Sister Stewart